Early the next morning, Lao Tie went out and found the path Lao Qin had pointed out. However, two thousand yuan was not enough, so Lao Tie put up his three gold bars and returned with three hard objects in return.
The afternoon passed peacefully. After the mahjong players left, the local gangsters on Hong Kong Island started to provoke them. Old Qin pointed at a blond-haired young man and said, "This is their leader."
Bei Nan ran up and, while Huang Mao was still being arrogant, his fist was already out. Huang Mao didn't expect the mainland boy to be so powerful. He felt his nose was wet and touched it, finding his hand covered in blood. He angrily ordered his men to attack.
Lao Tie and Mao Tou had already made a name for themselves in the black market, so why would they be afraid of these weaklings? Each of them was exceptionally skilled and ruthless, becoming the vanguard of the merciless fugitives.
Old Qin was overjoyed. It seemed the mahjong parlor could be saved. With morale high, his actions changed. The blond-haired man realized he was no match for them, so he whistled, and the group fled.
Three days later, Lao Qin started distributing the money. In the end, the people from the north and south were still in debt, but fortunately it wasn't much, and they could pay it off the next day. Lao Qin was so generous that he also provided them with a room and board for another day and introduced them to some nearby places with cheaper rent.
A week later, the three found a two-bedroom apartment near the mahjong parlor. Bei Nan and Mao Tou each had one room, and Lao Tie was the manager of the living room. In that week, the four of them fought a total of six times, each time more ferocious than the last. The last time, the other side had too many people, so Lao Tie and the others showed their weapons, which scared them away.
Bei Nan knew that these gangsters weren't a big problem. If the real big shots came, they wouldn't be able to handle it. It was time to expand. Lao Tie nodded and started going to the beach every day to find the new gangsters. He actually found a few honest guys.
The profits from mahjong parlors were so lucrative that the three men from the north and south, along with Lao Qin, opened many more mahjong parlors. They frequently fought with other mainlanders over fame and profit, disrupting the local balance and attracting endless trouble.
But Bei and Nan had no regrets. They couldn't afford comfort now, so they could only work hard to make money and strive to return to their hometown in glory as soon as possible, rescue their cousin, and go home to see their grandmother, parents, and Nan.
Environment shapes people, and people can also shape the environment. In just a few years, the North and South have become familiar with everything about Hong Kong Island—the good, the bad, the virtuous, and the wicked. They have learned to go to bars to drink and find women, to gamble and cheat, to deceive and cheat, and to take risky and unorthodox methods.
Since they are all illegal immigrants, Hong Kong's laws have no effect on them, which has led them to become even more unscrupulous in accumulating wealth and developing their own power in order to seek greater profits.
Having made a lot of money, they thought about going back to rescue people and kept sending people back to find out the situation. When they learned that it was not the time to go back, they were disappointed but had even greater ambitions in mind.
Bei Nan, Mao Tou, and the other two always knew that good would prevail over evil. While they were frantically accumulating wealth, they also used their connections and money to gather more information and always kept an eye out for any disturbances.
Before the investigation of undocumented illegal immigrants in Hong Kong, they had already received the news, spent a large sum of money to quickly buy plane tickets to Vancouver, Canada, and obtained local citizenship. The three of them transformed into Chinese Canadians.
As for Lao Qin, he wanted to protect the empire he had built, so he managed to obtain a Hong Kong identity and legally stay there. He also told Bei Nan that he could come back to find him anytime.
The three men set foot on this vast land, determined to be good people, start a business, and wait for the right opportunity to return home in glory. So, they found Chinatown, the most bustling place in the world, and prepared to start a new chapter in their lives.
Upon arriving in Chinatown, Bei and Nan realized that their dreams of being good people and starting a business were too idealistic and unrealistic. Turbulent times produce heroes, and they had to continue to struggle and work hard to achieve true success; otherwise, all their previous efforts would be in vain.
Lying in the hotel, Bei Nan and the others finally had a good night's sleep. Bei Nan even dreamed that he had returned to Mushroom Village and went up the mountain to have a barbecue with Nan Nan. Nan Nan was holding a beggar's chicken and kept stuffing it into her mouth.
The repeated calls of "Third Brother" startled Bei Nan awake. After waking from the dream, Bei Nan wept. In the days to come, amidst the clash of swords and shadows, even the wish to dream of family would probably become a luxury.
In the distant Mushroom Village, winter has passed, and it's wheat harvest season again. Yan Xiaoqiang is busy with farm work. This year, he's determined not to let his daughter participate. She's an eighteen-year-old girl; what kind of image would she have working in the fields?
He forgot that countless young women in Mushroom Village were working in the fields, their faces tanned a deep liver color, still diligently wielding their sickles.
Tang Xiaoling and Xuemei also didn't go to the fields. Xuemei finally became pregnant after being nourished by Yan Xiaonan's mountain god energy during the New Year. Both of them were carrying a second Nannan in their bellies. How could they go to the fields? What if something went wrong? Since they couldn't go to the fields, they would cook. After cooking, they would have Cuihua deliver the food.
The women of Mushroom Village were seething with envy and resentment when they saw Cuihua bringing them food. They thought Yan Xiaoqiang spoiled his wife so much that she wouldn't even go to the fields anymore. They also thought Tang Xiaoling and Xuemei were acting like they were carrying a dragon's child, even though she was just pregnant. The envy and jealousy they felt was so intense and bittersweet.
The men of the Yan family ignored the gossip of these women. They cherished their own wives. It was just a little farm work; they could just work a couple more days. Why did they need pregnant women and embroidery women to go to the fields?
That's what they say, but the busy farming season is really tiring. Every day I'm so tired I can't straighten my back. Strangely, after I get home and sleep, I feel energetic the next day, as if the backache from yesterday was just an illusion.
Yan Xiaoqiang, Dongnan, and Xinan all knew that this was Nannan's doing, so they worked even harder. The arrival of two pregnant women in the family delighted Grandma and Cuihua, who cooked different kinds of nourishing food for them every day.
After Xuemei became pregnant, Dongnan decided that Xuemei should stay in their hometown. He wanted to concentrate on his work and make good plans. He would hide what needed to be hidden, revise what needed to be revised, and write what needed to be written. He was completely immersed in his work and realized that protecting the fruits of his labor was such a joy.
Yan Dongnan brought back all the things he had prepared and hid them in Yan Xiaonan's room. In this house, if you really wanted to hide things so well that even ghosts couldn't find them, no one but Yan Xiaonan could do it.
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